This news itself should invoke terror in the heart of XP users, as it’s almost certainly the result of a leaked vulnerability which could hit the internets very soon and turn all the PCs running a undead operating system into zombies.

Actually, the news is not that bad, as it would require a user to be logged in, but often hackers are able to stack vulnerabilities to compromise operating systems.

The patch, KB982316, released on the 19th May, warns:

A security issue has been identified that could allow an authenticated local attacker to compromise your system and gain control over it.

The patch is only 492 kb, and will require users to reboot their PC. It is likely now that the patch is released hackers will be able to reverse engineer the vulnerability, so the clock is ticking.